News:

"There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current petroleum paradigm 🐉🦕🦖 is no different. The trick here is trying to figure out how we all make it to the new ⚡ paradigm without dying ☠️ right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise." - William Rivers Pitt

Topic Summary

Posted by: AGelbert

Grass Fed or Lab Bred Meats — Which Is Better for Your Health and the Environment?

Written by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked✔

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

► Industrial agriculture is one of the most unsustainable practices of modern civilization, contributing to air pollution, water pollution, aquifer depletion, deforestation, rising carbon emissions and the depletion, erosion and poisoning of soils

► The long-term answer lies in the transition to sustainable, regenerative, chemical-free farming practices, not fake lab-created meat substitutes, which are really just another way to patent and control the food supply

► Fake meats may ultimately create more problems than they solve, as laboratory derived meat substitutes are not part of the ecological cycle and health hazards are as of yet entirely unknown

► On April 1, 2019, Burger King started offering the Impossible Whopper, made with a meat substitute, at 59 locations in the St. Louis area. If customer demand turns out to be sufficient, the fake burger will be launched at all 7,200 U.S. locations

► The meat substitute created by Impossible Foods contains a mix of wheat, coconut oil, potatoes and “heme” derived from genetically engineered yeast

This sponsored post was brought to you by Authority Reports and written by Albert Davidoff

Many people claim that pink Himalayan salt offers incredible health benefits and that it is loaded with minerals. It is a type of salt that is mined in Pakistan, near the Himalayas and it is naturally pink in color. Is pink Himalayan salt really healthier than regular table salt or is it nothing more than speculation? This article looks at the evidence in order to determine whether pink Himalayan salt or regular salt offers the most health benefits and what the key differences are.

Need more info on what natural health products or supplements to buy? Authority Reports evaluate a wide variety of natural health products to determine what would be best for your unique situation.

What Exactly is Salt?

Salt is a mineral which largely consists of a compound called sodium chloride. Some people even use the words 'sodium' and 'salt' interchangeably—this is because salt contains around 98% of sodium chloride in weight. (Read more about the side effects, interactions and dosage instructions of sodium chloride).

There are two ways in which salt can be produced: by extracting it from underground salt mines (solid salt) or by evaporating salt water. Before it ends up on your dinner table, it also goes through a refining process in order to remove any other minerals (except for sodium chloride) and in order to remove any impurities. Sometimes anticaking agents are added in order to absorb moisture and often iodine is also included as this helps consumers to prevent ending up with an iodine deficiency.

It is absolutely essential to include salt in your diet as it plays an important role in muscle and nerve contractions as well as a variety of biological functions. On the other hand - too much salt can also lead to heart disease and high blood pressure. Many people have turned to pink Himalayan salt as they believe that it is a healthier alternative and because they believe that too much table salt can potentially be harmful to their health.

What is Himalayan Salt?

Himalayan salt gets extracted from the Khewra Salt Mine in Pakistan, near the Himalayas. It is one of the largest and oldest salt mines to be found in the world. The salt that can be harvested from this mine has apparently been formed from the evaporation of large bodies of water in ancient times. It is believed that Himalayan salt is composed of remnants of the primal, original sea, as it comes from salt mines located more than 5000 feet deep below the Himalayan Mountain range. It has, therefore, experienced tremendous pressure over hundreds and thousands of years and is said to be extremely pure.

It is much more natural than table salt, as it has been minimally processed and hand-extracted, which makes it free of additives and also an unrefined product. It is also mostly comprised of sodium chloride, but because of the natural harvesting process, it also contains many other trace elements and minerals that are not included in regular table salt. It is estimated that it contains up to 84 different trace elements and minerals. It is these minerals and especially iron which gives it its pink color.

How Can Pink Himalayan Salt Be Used?

There are many non-dietary and dietary uses for pink Himalayan salt:

Cook with it or eat it—you can use pink salt in the same way that you would use table salt. It can also be used as a cooking surface. Large blocks of salt can be used to sear, grill and impart a salty flavor to foods such as meats. It can be purchased in coarse varieties or finely ground.Non-dietary uses—it can be used to soothe sore muscles and improve skin by using it in a salt bath. Pink Himalayan salt lamps can also apparently remove air pollutants. It is also common for people to spend time in man-made pink Himalayan salt caves in order to improve respiratory and skin problems.

Health Claims of Pink Himalayan Salt

As mentioned above, both pink salt and regular table salt contain mostly sodium chloride, but pink salt has up to 84 other trace elements and minerals. These include minerals such as calcium, potassium, molybdenum, and strontium.

Studies show that table salt contains more sodium and that Himalayan salt contains more iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.

The following health claims are commonly made about pink salt:

֍ Increase libido

֍ Reduce signs of aging

֍ Improve respiratory disease

֍ Improve sleep quality

֍ Help to balance your body's pH

֍ Regulate blood sugar

Even though there are some studies that support the various benefits experienced when exposed to salt caves, such as the treatment of various lung diseases, there is little to support the health claims made above.

Researchers have found, for example, that very low-salt diets may contribute to sleeping issues, suggesting that an adequate amount of sodium is essential for quality sleep. The additional minerals that can be found in Himalayan salt are present in very small quantities, which means that it won't effectively balance your body's pH. Also, libido, aging and blood sugar levels are mostly controlled by other factors and there are no studies that suggest that pink salt will influence these aspects of your health. (Learn more about what foods will assist in controlling your blood sugar levels).

The Conclusion

There are no studies at this stage that show that pink Himalayan salt has more health benefits than regular table salt. However, Himalayan salt would be more beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing as it does not contain any additives or harmful artificial ingredients, making it an excellent natural alternative. Also, remember that table salt is one of the main sources of iodine. If you are using Himalayan salt, make sure to get iodine from other food sources such as fish, dairy products and seaweed.

Posted by: AGelbert

Find Out Your 'Foodprint':New Website Helps You Shop, Cook and Eat More Sustainably

By Olivia Rosane

Oct. 18, 2018 12:12PM EST

Two days after World Food Day, an innovative nonprofit has launched a website to help you reduce the environmental impact of the food you eat.

FoodPrint, designed by GRACE Communications Foundation, was created to educate consumers about everything that goes into common food items, from farm to fridge, so that they can make sustainable choices.

"Your 'foodprint' is the result of all of everything it takes to get your food from the farm to your plate. Many of those processes are invisible to consumers," the website explains.

GRACE Communications Foundation is all about spreading awareness about the environmental and public health impacts of the industrial food system in order to promote more sustainable alternatives, and its latest venture offers all sorts of tips for food lovers looking for greener diets.

Here are some of the highlights ✨ of how you can shrink your foodprint at all stages of the meal prep process.

Shopping 🎍

֍ Look for Good Labels: The site offers guides by food type for which labels guarantee certain standards, which are less stringent and which are just marketing ploys. For produce, for example, USDA Organic and Demeter Certified Biodynamic are the best bets, while terms like "natural" or "pesticide free" are basically meaningless.

֍ Choose Low-Impact Foods: The Real Food Encyclopedia assesses the sustainability of more than 200 common foods, and also offers facts and cooking tips. In the U.S., wild rice is grown with water intensive methods in California, which is suffering from increasing drought. Barley, meanwhile, uses a relatively small amount of water and helps prevent erosion and weed growth.

֍ Eat Seasonably: The Seasonal Food Guide uses data from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state agricultural offices to offer the most comprehensive guide to what is in season in all 50 states.

Cooking 😋

1. Plan Ahead: The post "15 Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste" offers helpful tips for planning meals to avoid throwing things away, from creating a menu based around ingredients you already have to making sure you don't buy more than you can use.

2. Use All of the Foods You Buy: The post "Cook Like a Chef to Reduce Food Waste" explains how cooks around the world have crafted recipes to use all of an ingredient, even when it's less than fresh. A tough rooster can be the base for a succulent coq au vin, broccoli leaves are delicious and stale bread can be turned into breadcrumbs.

3. Reduce Storage and Packaging Waste: From plastic shopping bags to disposable storage containers to paper napkins, there are a lot of non-food items that can get wasted in the kitchen. "Keeping Kitchen Waste to a Minimum" offers solutions like reusing plastic packaging containers as storage, washing and reusing free bags and heading to flea markets for cheap cloth napkins.

Dining Out 🧐

1. Support Sustainable Restaurants: Guides like Certified Green Restaurants or Zero FoodPrint can help you find restaurants that have committed to using sustainable food, reduced packaging and less water, among other concerns. The Restaurant Opportunities Center's National Diner's Guide can help you find places that have committed to paying their staff a living wage.2. Check the Menu: If a restaurant isn't certified, you can check the menu to see if it offers local, seasonal produce or is trying to serve asparagus in January in the Midwest.

3. Reduce Waste: If you are eating in or getting takeout, you can reduce food and packaging waste by sharing menu items, taking leftovers home and bringing your own reusable straws or drink containers.

Posted by: AGelbert

The four-leaf clover is an uncommon variation of the common, three-leaved clover. The three-leaf clover or shamrock had been used by St. Patrick as a metaphor for the Christian Trinity. According to tradition, such leaves bring good luck to their finders, especially if found accidentally. In addition, each leaf is believed to represent something:

the first is for faith,

the second is for hope, the

third is for love,

and the fourth is for luck

Quote

It has been estimated that there are approximately 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover; however, this probability has not deterred collectors who have reached records as high as 160,000 four-leaf clovers.

Agelbert NOTE: When I was a kid in Kansas, I used to eat clover leaves and stems by the bunches. They have a nice sour pickly taste. I never did eat the flowers though. I figured if bees liked them, some small bugs might like them too and I would eat them by mistake. Bugs never were my thing.

The word "shamrock" is derived from the Irish word seamróg, which means "clover". White clover is the real Irish shamrock.

A lot of popular images you see for shamrocks show leaves that look more like our friend the wood sorrel, but clover is the real thing.

The binomial name for white clover is Trifolium repens. Red clover is Trifolium pratense.

All of those are Latin words. Trifolium means "three leaves", repens means "recent, sudden, or fresh", and pratense means "found in meadows."

The clovers are native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. They were introduced to the Americas by settlers. Clover is commonly used as fodder for livestock and is also a valuable soil builder.

The young leaves, taken before the plant flowers, can be eaten raw in salads. As the plant matures, cooking the leaves is recommended. The dried leaves are said to add a slightly vanilla-like flavor to baked goods. In my own experience with clover leaves, I found them to be rather bitter (maybe I picked them at the wrong time). I stick to the flowers.

The roots should be eaten cooked.

The flowers and seeds are the parts of the clover that are of greatest interest to most foragers. The flowers are used raw in salads as well as sauteed, stir-fried, or fried as fritters. They are also popular for making teas and wines.

Posted by: AGelbert

Daylillies are known as the poor man's asparagus. A nice seasonal summer treat!

Cooking with wild edibles

Please Do Eat the Daylilies

Both the buds and the blossoms of daylilies are edible, a fact I regrettably learned only after I had dug out numerous flowering clusters encroaching on my lawn. But now I get a kick out of astonishing friends when I casually pluck a daylily "bean" from their backyard patch, and take a bite. Next thing you know, they're inviting me to gather a handful, which I'm happy to add to my next stir-fry. And they're happy to know that when the vivid flowers bloom, they will make a sweet-spicy bonus in the kitchen.

Daylilies are a common garden plant that have "gone wild." They're found throughout most parts of the United States from late spring through summer, often near sunny fields, roadsides and empty lots.

Buds are distinguished from the plant's non-edible fruits by their layered interiors. Choose smallish buds that are just beginning to open and cook them as you would beans: boil and serve them with butter or add chilled, tender-cooked buds to salads. Or, if you happen upon a spicy batch (they're typically mild-flavored, like beans or zucchini), stir-fry them with Asian flavors.

Daylily buds will keep in the refrigerator for several days, but the delicate flowers (trumpet-shaped blooms that grow in multiples on a leafless stalk) should be consumed the same day they are picked; they are very short-lived. You can add the petals to egg dishes, soups and salads, or dip whole flowers in batter and deep-fry them, as you would squash blossoms.

Posted by: AGelbert

Eating flowers seems almost heretical. If plants could talk, wouldn't they say, you can look, even sniff, but please don't chow down on my pretty petals? The dainty apple flower, after all, is what gives way to the fruit, and thus the seed, ensuring the cycle of life continues. Do you dare give into the temptation to pluck it for food?

Many a chef certainly has. But most folks are clueless to the vast array of edible flowers. Apple blossoms, for example, impart a delicate floral flavor to fruit salads, along with a heavenly aroma. With many herbs, the flowers taste just like the leaf—chive flowers are a colorful way to infuse salad dressing with a garlic flavor.

On the other hand, some flowers are technically edible, but unpleasantly acrid. Chrysanthemums, for example, or begonias. One reference describes the flavor of wax begonias as slightly bitter with "a hint of swamp."

A word of warning before we get on to our list of edibles: Exercise caution when using flowers in the kitchen; many are poisonous. Those daffodils in your perennial border could cause nausea, diarrhea, itchiness, stupor, convulsions or even death, depending on how much you eat. (In almost all cases it's not just the flower that's poisonous, it's the entire plant.) Below, you'll fine a list of safe-to-consume flowers that we think you'll enjoy, with a few thoughts on how to grow and use them. And if you're ever unsure, here's a list ofcommon poisonous ☠️ plants whose flowers you never want to ingest.

field marigold (Calendula arvensis)

CalendulaAnnual All Zones

In the Kitchen: These cheery flowers have a fairly neutral, nondescript flavor and are used to brighten-up both salads and sweets. Pastry chefs sometimes use Calendulas to make floral designs on cheesecakes and other goodies. Because the golden-orange petals hold their hue when cooked, they're sometimes used as a saffron substitute as well.

In the Garden: Calendula is easy to grow from seed, and often reseeds itself in the garden each year without any effort on the part of the gardener. Needs full sun and regular water.

orange or tawny daylily (Hemerocallis fulva)

DaylilyPerennialZones 3 to 9

In the Kitchen: Most types of lilies are mildly toxic when consumed, but not daylilies. (Though botanically speaking, daylilies are not a true lily.) Daylily blossoms are meatier than most flower petals, with a succulent texture and a mildly sweet taste, similar to romaine lettuce. Chop them up and add them to salads, but be sure to sample the flavor first, as some daylily varieties taste better than others. Try stuffing them with herbed cheese or dipping the unopened flower buds in batter and frying them up as an hors d'oeuvre.

In the Garden: Daylilies are generally sold as a potted plant and are easy to grow in sun or part sun, as long as you provide ample moisture. In rich soil, they spread to form extensive colonies.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

DandelionPerennialZones 3 to 9

In the Kitchen: Adventurous foodies relish the bitter flavor of dandelion greens in salads and soups, though few realize the flowers are also edible. Use dandelion flowers exactly as you would calendula (a close botanical relative). The flavor is sweeter if picked immediately after the flowers open.

In the Garden: Dandelions can be found growing as a weed almost everywhere (lawns, sidewalk cracks, soccer fields), though you can purchase seeds if you want to establish a bed for culinary use. The plant needs full sun and is drought tolerant, once established.

elderberries (Sambucus berries )and their flowers

ElderberryZones 3 to 9

In the Kitchen: Elderberry flowers have a light, honey-like aroma and taste, and they're often used to flavor white wine, champagne, lemonade, iced tea, and other summery drinks. You can sprinkle the tiny individual flowers in salads, or fry the dome-shaped clusters whole to make elderberry fritters. Beware that elderberry foliage is mildly toxic, as is the uncooked fruit (the cooked fruit, however, is edible and delicious).

In the Garden: Elderberries are typically purchased as a potted plant, and are easy to grow in full sun or partial shade. Water frequently until established.

Borage ( Borago officinalis)

BorageAnnualAll Zones

In the Kitchen: Borage flowers have a mild, cucumber-esque flavor and are used to jazz-up salads, drinks, and savory dishes. The plant's electric-blue hue is a great compliment to calendula's golden tones, making for a photo-worthy plating.

In the Garden: Borage is easily grown from seed, and typically reseeds itself in the garden year after year. Drought tolerant.

Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia Grosso)

LavenderZones 4 to 9

In the Kitchen: Lavender flowers have a unique, savory flavor with a hint of floral sweetness, and they're usually employed in summer drinks, ice cream, chocolate, and other sweets. Rub the flower buds between your fingers to separate the tiny individual flowers and sprinkle them into your dish.

In the Garden: Lavender is typically purchased as a potted plant. Grow it in a location with full sun and well-drained soil. Lavender is highly drought tolerant—once established, water only when the soil is bone dry.

Pansy (Viola tricolor)

PansyAnnualAll Zones

In the Kitchen: Pansies are one of the few flowers that come in every color of the rainbow. They have a mild, nondescript flavor and are used primarily for decorating salads and desserts. Use violets, a close relative of pansies, in the same way.

In the Garden: Pansies are typically grown from seed. They thrive in locations with rich, moist soil and part sun. Pansies suffer in the heat of summer, so they're primarily grown as spring and fall annuals.

Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

HibiscusHardiness Zone Varies by Species

In the Kitchen: Hibiscus flowers have a cranberry-like flavor with tropical notes. Though they're most often made into iced tea or infused into other cold drinks, chopped hibiscus flowers add a tangy spunk to salads and desserts.

In the Garden: There are numerous edible species of hibiscus, but it is the Jamaican species Hibiscus sabdariffa that is most known for its flavor. Hibiscus is typically purchased as a potted plant. Needs full sun and ample irrigation.

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum)

NasturtiumAnnualAll Zones

In the Kitchen: Nasturtium flowers have a peppery zest similar to watercress, to which the plant is closely related. They are primarily used in salads and as a garnish for hors d'oeuvres. Though the tubular flowers are large and sturdy enough to stuff with cheese or tapenade.

In the Garden: Nasturtium is easily grown from seed in partial shade or full sun, and often reseed themselves in the garden. Thrives in rich soil with regular irrigation.

Rose (Rosa rubiginosa)

RoseZones 3 to 10

In the Kitchen: Most people pick roses as a centerpiece for their table or to give as a symbol of their affection, but their culinary qualities are unsurpassed. Roses taste much like they smell, but with a slightly bitter undertone. Use in drinks, desserts, and salads, or make rose petal jam.

In the Garden: There are literally hundreds of rose varieties to choose from, some of which are much easier to grow and others. Iceberg roses and Knock Out roses are two of the most foolproof varieties. Roses thrive in a location with rich, well-drained soil and full sun. They require regular irrigation

Posted by: AGelbert

Unlikely to work with so much dirt about. Potential for methanol poisoning.

This is interesting. Having lived many years in the tropics, I am familiar with banana plants and plantain plants used for various purposes besides fermenting or eating the fruit. You can chop the whole plant off just above the base of the trunk after you have harvested the fruit if you have a need for drinking water. You make a wide bowl shaped cut in the trunk base. You then allow it to fill with water from the roots. You scoop that water out. You allow the bowl to fill anoterh time. You scoop that water out too (the first two water products are too bitter tasting). The third time you can drink the water. The U.S. Marines recommended this for jungle survival during WWII.

I also noted the clever use of banana plant leaves by this fellow. Banana and plantain plant leaves are used to wrap "pasteles", a type of plantain starch meal flavored with chunks of pork, garbanzo beans (chick peas), capers and an olive here and there. Eating off the plantain leaf is quite enjoyable.

Back to fermentation of bananas for wine in the you posted, I was surprised to not see flies trying to get to the bananas prior to them being heated. In the tropics, flies are ubiquitous, as you know. The bamboo forest area in the video is apparently favored in not having pesky flies around.

Down in Puerto Rico they make a kind of moonshine ("pitorro") from fruit. However, they are not limited by one type of fruit. They will throw grapes, pieces of oranges (skin included!), bananas and even guavas (as long as the fruit has a reasonable amount of fructose in it, it is fermentally elgible) in a container for making the Puerto Rican verson of white lightinin'. Their methods are not primitive like in the video. They use distillation columns and such to get their product.

At any rate, thank you for posting something that contributes to our knowledge base.

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: I found the info in this article very valuable. It is rock solid and backed up with the latest studies. Boosting mitochondrial function is exactly what the ketogenic diet does. Please read the whole thing and watch the video. It will do you good.

What You Really Need to Know About Heart Disease and Its TreatmentDecember 24, 2017

Story at-a-glance

֍ Recent research shows stents do not improve angina, thereby negating the sole remaining medical indication for angioplasty or the placement of a stent to unblock a blocked artery

֍ The largest study done on heart attack incidence revealed only 41 percent of people who have a heart attack actually have a blocked artery. Of those, 50 percent of the blockages occurred after the heart attack. This means at least 80 percent of heart attacks are not associated with blocked arteries at all

֍ Three primary causes of heart attacks are decreased parasympathetic tone followed by sympathetic nervous system activation, lack of microcirculation and lactic acid buildup in the heart muscle

SNIPPPET 1:

High Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Attacks

As noted by Cowan, many cardiologists would probably answer that question saying the underlying problem is high cholesterol. Alas, the evidence does not support this position either. “I actually looked up four papers, [one] in JAMA, three in The Lancet, showing that life expectancy tends to increase as cholesterol goes up, and that there is no relationship between high cholesterol and death,” Cowan says.

SNIPPET 2:

The Role of Mitochondria in Heart Attacks

Another area of concern is your mitochondria. Unfortunately, this is an area that conventional cardiology is still largely unfamiliar with. In essence, angina is a symptom of poor mitochondrial function, causing a buildup of lactic acid that triggers cramps and pain. When this pain and cramping occurs in your heart, it’s called angina. The lactic acid buildup also restricts blood flow and makes the tissue more toxic.

When a cramp occurs in your leg, you stop moving it, which allows some of the lactic acid to drain off. But your heart cannot stop, so the glycolytic fermentation continues, and the lactic acid continues to build up, eventually interfering with the ability of calcium to get into the muscle. This in turn renders the muscle — in this case your heart — unable to contract, which is exactly what you see on a stress echo or a nuclear thallium scan.

“You see a dyskinetic or an akinetic muscle, which means it doesn't move, because the calcium can't get into the cells because the tissue has become too acidic,” Cowan explains. “Eventually, the acidosis continues, and that becomes the cause of necrosis of the tissue, which is what we call a heart attack …

By the way … [the] dyskinetic area … the part of the heart that's not moving, creates pressure … in the artery embedded in that part of the heart, which causes clots to break off. That explains why you get clots forming after the heart attack, not before. This lactic acidosis buildup is one of the key events, without which you won't have angina, and you won't have the progression to necrosis.

Those are the three [primary causes of heart attacks]: The autonomic nervous system, the microcirculation and lactic acid buildup. Luckily, there are safe, nontoxic, effective ways to address each of those, either individually or together.”

A blood vessel that is blocked to a large extent will obstruct the flood flow. A slowly closing narrowing will allow less and less blood to pass. This is known as “critical stenosis”, but in fact, this is not as critical as conventional medicine claims. Heart seizure and heart attacks are by no means an inevitable result. Why is this? The solution to the riddle is that the three coronary arteries are not isolated from one-another; they are not “end arteries” that are not connected with one another, but part of an extensive network of blood vessels that exist in all parts of the heart muscle. Furthermore, the body is capable of helping itself should there be a blockage of the blood flow or in the oxygen supply and it is able to extend this network in a substantial way.

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: I found the info in this article very valuable. It is rock solid and backed up with the latest studies. Boosting mitochondrial function is exactly what the ketogenic diet does. Please read the whole thing and watch the video. It will do you good.

What You Really Need to Know About Heart Disease and Its TreatmentDecember 24, 2017

Story at-a-glance

֍ Recent research shows stents do not improve angina, thereby negating the sole remaining medical indication for angioplasty or the placement of a stent to unblock a blocked artery

֍ The largest study done on heart attack incidence revealed only 41 percent of people who have a heart attack actually have a blocked artery. Of those, 50 percent of the blockages occurred after the heart attack. This means at least 80 percent of heart attacks are not associated with blocked arteries at all

֍ Three primary causes of heart attacks are decreased parasympathetic tone followed by sympathetic nervous system activation, lack of microcirculation and lactic acid buildup in the heart muscle

SNIPPPET 1:

High Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Attacks

As noted by Cowan, many cardiologists would probably answer that question saying the underlying problem is high cholesterol. Alas, the evidence does not support this position either. “I actually looked up four papers, [one] in JAMA, three in The Lancet, showing that life expectancy tends to increase as cholesterol goes up, and that there is no relationship between high cholesterol and death,” Cowan says.

SNIPPET 2:

The Role of Mitochondria in Heart Attacks

Another area of concern is your mitochondria. Unfortunately, this is an area that conventional cardiology is still largely unfamiliar with. In essence, angina is a symptom of poor mitochondrial function, causing a buildup of lactic acid that triggers cramps and pain. When this pain and cramping occurs in your heart, it’s called angina. The lactic acid buildup also restricts blood flow and makes the tissue more toxic.

When a cramp occurs in your leg, you stop moving it, which allows some of the lactic acid to drain off. But your heart cannot stop, so the glycolytic fermentation continues, and the lactic acid continues to build up, eventually interfering with the ability of calcium to get into the muscle. This in turn renders the muscle — in this case your heart — unable to contract, which is exactly what you see on a stress echo or a nuclear thallium scan.

“You see a dyskinetic or an akinetic muscle, which means it doesn't move, because the calcium can't get into the cells because the tissue has become too acidic,” Cowan explains. “Eventually, the acidosis continues, and that becomes the cause of necrosis of the tissue, which is what we call a heart attack …

By the way … [the] dyskinetic area … the part of the heart that's not moving, creates pressure … in the artery embedded in that part of the heart, which causes clots to break off. That explains why you get clots forming after the heart attack, not before. This lactic acidosis buildup is one of the key events, without which you won't have angina, and you won't have the progression to necrosis.

Those are the three [primary causes of heart attacks]: The autonomic nervous system, the microcirculation and lactic acid buildup. Luckily, there are safe, nontoxic, effective ways to address each of those, either individually or together.”

Posted by: AGelbert

What thistle is purple in color, part of the sunflower family, and is eaten as a vegetable?

Purple of Romagna Artichoke: Italian heirloom favored by chefs for its tenderness and unique nutty taste

Agelbert NOTE: The creator's fibonacci footprint can be clearly seen in the artichoke.

How to Grow Artichokes

SNIPPET:

Interesting Facts About Artichokes

Native to the Mediterranean region, artichokes (Cynara scolymus) became scarce with the fall of the Roman Empire. After making a comeback in Italy in the 1500s, artichokes were introduced to the Americas by French and Spanish gardeners. California is the biggest producer of artichokes in the U.S. Other interesting facts about artichokes are:1

Although commonly referred to as a vegetable, artichokes are actually a thistle that is part of the sunflower family

Artichokes can be grown as either a perennial or an annual; perennial artichoke plants last up to five years

When you let their buds open and flower, artichokes produce striking bluish-purple flowers that attract pollinators like bees and butterflies

Types of ArtichokesArtichokes come in several varieties, including:2,3

Posted by: AGelbert

It’s not just your imagination. Today’s tomatoes simply don’t taste the way they used to, and now science has told us why. Researchers working on a study published in the journal Science performed exhaustive taste tests of 100 tomato varieties and sequenced the genomes of nearly 400 varieties. They were able to identify 23 volatile compounds that give a tomato its flavor. Unfortunately, many of those compounds, plus essential sugars, are missing from today’s supermarket tomatoes -- they were inadvertently lost when the industry sought to maximize yields and improve tomatoes' resistance to pests and disease.Better tomatoes on the way?

•“The flavor got lost because people didn’t know what the molecular and genetic bases were, so they couldn’t apply them,” said study author Antonio Granell.

•Major seed producers are expected to use this new genetic information to make seeds that will grow into new, tastier tomatoes -- possibly within four years.

•Harry Klee, professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida, also accused supermarkets of ruining the taste of tomatoes by chilling them at low temperatures, which adversely affects the flavor.

Posted by: AGelbert

I am really worried. I have to cut up TWO Avocados to add to my salad for today's Potlatch Ceremony here at Diner HQ! I could be maimed for life! Should I risk cutting up the Avocados or leave them out of the salad? :icon_scratch:

(NBC News) Once shunned for its high fat content, the avocado is now revered in kitchens across america for its amazing heart healthy benefits, but the guacamole-starter’s place in the spotlight may be spoiling.

Just ask anyone who’s tried to cut open the green fruit, and ended up slicing right through their hand instead.

One problem is this big slippery pit in the middle. People tend to use a big knife to whack it out of there.

It’s been reported that one plastic surgeon in the United Kingdom suggested the problem is so bad that avocados should come with warning labels.

We couldn’t find a doctor willing to go quite that far, but they offered a few safety tips instead.

First, don’t hold anything you’re trying to cut. Place it on a cutting board.

If you must hold it, put a folded towel between the fruit and your hand.

Second, sharpen your knives.

“A very sharp knife is actually safer,” Dr. Waters explains. “It’s more accurate and you’re able to do what you need to do. It’s actually the dull knives that lead to injuries.”

The potential for long term injury is real. Deep cuts to nerves or tendons can take weeks to months to heal.

Well, it's never happened to me. :laugh: The deal with aguacates is to JUST NOT put a lot of pressure on the knife after you get through the thin, but tough, outer skin. The inside before the pip is so soft that you just go all the way around and have two slices lickity split!

The pip just pops out. Also, I use a spoon to get as much of the meat out as possible.

By the way, the fruit in the picture looks like it was a bit green. The "meat" can be quite tough when they are not ripe. In that situation, a cut might result from trying to wedge the pip out with a knife instead of using a spoon or your finger.

Posted by: AGelbert

A 40-year-old previously unpublished trial shows that while replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil lowered total cholesterol by 14 percent, for every 30 point drop in total cholesterol there was a 22 percent increased chance of death

Many other trials have also found that replacing saturated fats with vegetable oils increase mortality risk from all causes, including coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease

For the past four decades, the U.S. government has warned that eating cholesterol-rich foods such as eggs would raise your LDL cholesterol (inappropriately referred to as "bad" cholesterol) and promote heart disease.

Alas, decades' worth of research utterly failed to demonstrate this correlation, and the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans1,2,3,4,5 finally addressed this scientific shortcoming, announcing "cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption."6

This is good news, since dietary cholesterol plays an important role in brain health and memory formation, and is indispensable for the building of cells and the production of stress and sex hormones, as well as vitamin D. (When sunlight strikes your bare skin, the cholesterol in your skin is converted into vitamin D.)

Unfortunately, the dietary guidelines still cling to outdated misinformation about saturated fat, wrongly accusing it of raising LDL and contributing to heart disease. Here, science has shown that saturated fat only raises the safe, fluffy LDL particles. It also increases HDL, which is beneficial for your heart.

The guidelines became and are still confusing because the basic premise was wrong. Dietary fat is indeed associated with heart disease, but it's the processed vegetable oils, which are loaded with trans fats and oxidized omega-6 fats, that are the problem , not saturated fats.

The introduction of industrialized, highly processed and frequently heated omega-6 vegetable oils distorted the vitally important omega 6-to-3 ratio, causing metabolic catastrophes. The problem was further exacerbated by replacing saturated fat with refined carbohydrates, which were incorrectly viewed as a healthier option, thanks to misinformation created and spread by the sugar industry.

Posted by: AGelbert

Start by replacing your processed or animal-based meals with foods from each color segment below and check out their benefits on their ability to fight cancer.Green:

Fruits and vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, kale, turnips, cauliflower, asparagus, collards, mustard greens, green apples, fresh herbs, zucchini, turnip greens, spinach, and Brussels sprouts contain either antioxidants known as flavones and/or indoles which have been directly linked to the prevention against cancer. They also contain high amounts of chlorophyll that prevents acidity in the body. Soybeans, green peas, and green beans are also high in antioxidants that support immune health even further.

Yellow/Orange:

Fruits and vegetables such as pumpkin, squash, peaches, yellow and orange bell peppers, lemons, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, papaya, and apricots all contain especially high levels of Vitamin C for immune health, along with beta-carotene, a nutrient derived from the carotenoids found in these plants that give them their colorful hue. Studies have shown that women who eat carotenoid-rich vegetables reduce their breast cancer risk by up to 19 percent!

Red/Orange:

Fruits like watermelon, tomatoes, red peppers, papaya, grapefruit, and guava, all contain lycopene that also reduces the risks for prostate cancer and heart disease. Lycopene has also been shown to lower high cholesterol that can lead to increased fat cells that stimulate cancer cell growth.

Red/Blue/Purple:

Blue and purple foods like berries, figs, beets, pomegranates, grapes, raisins, and plums, all contain high levels of antioxidants known as anthocyanins or polyphenols that protect the heart and prevent heart disease. Their intake has also been linked to the prevention of certain types of cancers, according to The American Cancer Society.

White/Tan/Brown:

If you think white vegetables don’t count, think again! They are rich in antioxidants known as phytochemicals like allicin (garlic and onions), beans and legumes (that contain fiber to reduce cholesterol and obesity), quercetin (onions and apples), selenium (mushrooms), Vitamin C (onions, apples, and parsnips), and a variety of vitamins and minerals that support the immune system (banana flesh, white nectarines, white peaches, cauliflower, artichokes, and potatoes.) Selenium was found to be one of the most prominent minerals for mens’ prostate health while garlic and onions remain as two of the top foods to boost the immune system and fight cancer cell growth.

There are so many ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet. Here are a few great suggestions:

Posted by: AGelbert

It’s no secret that we’re kind of obsessed with protein. Studies have shown that the average person in a developed country consumes 103 grams of protein a day — more than double the recommended daily intake, most of which come from animal protein. Unfortunately, our appetite for animal-based protein has a devastating impact on the planet. Luckily, as more people come to recognize how meat and dairy can negatively impact not only the health of the planet but their own as well, the demand for clean, plant-based protein is on the rise. The plant-based protein market is estimated to reach a value of $5.2 billion by 2020 and plant-based meat alternatives could make up one-third of the entire market by 2050. In keeping with this trend, one company just took a huge step in leading the change.

Last week Roquette, a French, family-owned company, announced it will build the world’s largest pea processing plant in Manitoba, Canada. Roquette has been around since the 1930s and currently specializes in producing sustainable products in the pharmaceutical, health, food, nutrition, feed, pet food spaces. This new plant will be dedicated to making pea protein, a high-protein, low-fat, and allergen-friendly alternative to animal protein. According to Roquette chair Edward Roquette, “it is the largest global investment dedicated to pea protein to date. And it constitutes a key pillar of our strategy in plant protein in general and in pea protein in particular.”

It’s not just Roquette that’s responding to the demand for plant-based protein — more companies than ever have embraced pea protein. Last year, Ripple Foods launched a line of plant-based milks made from pea protein while the maker’s of Muscle Milk released Evolve, a plant-based protein shake made from pea protein. 2016 also saw the launch of the Beyond Burger, a pea protein-based burger that contains 20 grams of protein per patty. Now, Roquette’s processing plant will be a fantastic step forward into the future of protein, making pea protein more easily available than ever. Construction of the world’s largest pea processing plant is set to begin later this year.

There’s no turning back from here. As the world’s population continues to grow and more developing nations start to demand more meat and dairy, we need to realize that animal protein cannot sustain a world of meat eaters. As Nil Zacharias, Co-Founder of One Green Planet, has said, “advancements in plant-protein are the kind of technological innovations the world desperately needs. In fact, it may be one of the only real shots we have to make our future on this planet possible.” If we hope to feed the growing demand for protein, we need to move ahead into the future of food with more plant-based options like pea protein.

Posted by: AGelbert

The popularity of the Mediterranean diet has made olive oil a $16 billion-a-year industry. Unfortunately, this popularity has also led to massive fraud and corruption.

Even "extra virgin" olive oil is often diluted with other less expensive oils, including hazelnut, soybean, corn, sunflower, palm, sesame, grape seed and/or walnut. These added oils will not be listed on the label.

Tips on how to identify high quality olive oil include buying from specialty retailers that allow you to taste it first. Guidance on what to look for is included. Taste and smell are factors by which you discern authenticity.

Posted by: AGelbert

While we do need protein, perhaps we don’t need so much as we might think. The Center for Disease Control and Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine both agree we are getting plenty of protein and that protein deficiency is not a problem in our society, especially in comparison to the cancer problem we have.

The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) even says that we actually get too much protein, around double of what we really need. They advise using the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) protein formula, which is : 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for the average adult.

To find out your average individual need, multiply your body weight in pounds by your recommended protein intake in grams.

Are We Eating Too Much Protein? A Scientist Makes the Connection Between Protein and Cancer

Posted by: AGelbert

“They were happy to condemn the article in general terms, but when I asked them to name just one of the supposed errors in it, not one of them was able to. One admitted he had not read it. Another told me she had signed the letter because the BMJ should not have published an article that was not peer reviewed (it was peer reviewed). Meir Stampfer, a Harvard epidemiologist, asserted that Teicholz’s work is ‘riddled with errors, ’ while declining to discuss them with me.”

It’s difficult to argue with Teicholz’s evidence-based logic that rates of obesity in the U.S. shot upward in 1980, the very year in which dietary guidelines were introduced, and the diabetes epidemic kicked in shortly after. Nor is it acceptable for decisions about influential national nutrition policies to be decided by people who work within the food industry. Teicholz wrote:

“It may be time to ask our authorities to convene an unbiased and balanced panel of scientists to undertake a comprehensive review, in order to ensure that selection of the dietary guidelines committee becomes more transparent, with better disclosure of the conflicts of interest, and that the most rigorous scientific evidence is reliably used to produce the best possible nutrition policy.”

Posted by: AGelbert

Although jackfruit is still considered an exotic tropical fruit in the U.S., it is becoming more popular in the vegan and vegetarian circles as a meat substitute. After about one hour of cooking, unripened jackfruit starts to resemble the flavor and mouth-feel of pulled pork.

What Is Jackfruit Good For?

Botanical name: Artocarpus heterophyllus

Having a distinct musky smell and deliciously sweet taste, jackfruit is a unique tropical fruit that is typically harvested during summer and fall.

It can grow to enormous sizes, measuring between 10 and 60 centimeters in length, 25 to 75 centimeters in diameter, and can weigh between 10 and 100 pounds, making it the largest tree-borne fruit in the world.

Specimens weighing more than 100 pounds have also been recorded.

Jackfruit originated from the rainforests of India’s Western Ghats and spread to other parts of the country, the East Indies and Southeast Asia. It is now planted in central and eastern Africa and has become quite popular in Brazil and Suriname. In Bangladesh, jackfruit is touted as the national fruit and it is considered the second-most important crop after mangoes.

The exotic jackfruit is green when unripe, and then turns light brown and spreads a strong fragrant smell once it is ripe. Like durian, jackfruit is round or oblong-shaped, and has an outer surface that is covered with blunt thorn-like projections that soften as the fruit ripens. Inside each fruit are hundreds of small, succulent yellow lobes. Most jackfruit trees can bear as many as 250 large fruits every season. The tree is used as timber as well.

Although jackfruit is still considered an exotic tropical fruit in the U.S., it is becoming more popular in the vegan and vegetarian circles as a meat substitute. After about one hour of cooking, unripened jackfruit starts to resemble the flavor and mouth-feel of pulled pork.

Health Benefits of Jackfruit

Jackfruit is a nutritional bonanza: it is rich in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, which makes it a good natural laxative. It can help improve digestion, as adequate fiber can be an effective natural remedy to prevent constipation, and it can also benefit those who want to lose or maintain their weight by giving a feeling of fullness.

Jackfruit is also known to contain significant amounts of vitamin A and flavonoid pigments (carotene-ß, xanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthin-ß), offering antioxidant and vision support. As it is low in calories and sodium and does not contain cholesterol or unhealthy fats, its luscious fruit lobes make a healthy, appetizing treat you can relish.

The enigmatic fruit is rich in B-complex vitamins, containing niacin, pyridoxine, riboflavin and folic acid. It is a viable source of minerals, such as iron, magnesium, potassium and manganese as well.

As a good source of vitamin C — also a powerful antioxidant — jackfruit offers about 23 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA), which makes it useful in helping fight off infectious agents while scavenging harmful free radicals in the body.

However, consume jackfruit in moderation because it contains fructose, which may be harmful to your health in excessive amounts.

A study published in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition indicated that the pulp of jackfruit is a natural source of antioxidants that protect cells from free radical damage. This means the fruit can help slow down skin aging and can even assist in repairing damaged molecules, like DNA.1

Jackfruit contains lignans and saponins, which are beneficial phytonutrients that have been shown to offer anti-cancer properties. Lignans have been found to help block the effects of the hormone estrogen, which may decrease risk of hormone-associated cancers (uterine, ovarian, breast and prostate). Saponins, on the other hand, are known to optimize immune function and reduce risk of heart disease.2

Another study published in The Ceylon Medical Journal categorized jackfruit as a low-glycemic index fruit, which is attributed to its dietary fiber content.3 Consumption of unripe jackfruit can even be used to fight high blood sugar level, according to a Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service study.4

Ripe Jackfruit

Researchers also regard jackfruit as a “miracle” food crop that could be a replacement for staple crops that are under threat from climate change. It is very easy to grow and can survive high temperatures, pests and diseases, and is even drought-resistant.

According to Shyamala Reddy, a biotechnology researcher at the University of Agriculture Sciences in Bangalore, India, the jackfruit is rich in calories and nutrients and if a person eats 10 to 12 bulbs, he or she won’t need food for another 12 hours. For these reasons, this fruit could be utilized to help save millions of people from hunger.5

1.Heat extra virgin coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin, nigella and mustard seeds and let them sizzle for about a minute. Add the bay leaves and red chili peppers, and then cook for several seconds. Add the onion, garlic and ginger, and just a pinch of Himalayan salt. Cook until translucent (five to six minutes) and remember to mix occasionally.

2.Add the turmeric, coriander and black pepper, mixing well. Stir while adding the pureed tomato, jackfruit and the rest of the salt. Cover and cook for approximately 15 minutes.

3.Uncover and cook for another few minutes to make the tomato puree thicker. The jackfruit can also be shredded.

4.Add the water and then cover and cook for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust the flavor accordingly, then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for an extra 10 minutes or longer, until your desired consistency is achieved. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Jackfruit Fun Facts

Jackfruit emits a sweet yet putrid stench that has been described as a combination of overripe bananas, onions , pineapple and passion fruit. Like durian*, the giant fruit is banned in airports and plane cabins, but it isn’t prohibited as cargo.

*durian

Summary

Jackfruit certainly brings something new to the table. Aside from its distinctive flavor, this interesting fruit also has an impressive nutritional profile that includes vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients. Researchers believe this tropical fruit could help solve the food shortage problem because it is high in calories, rich in fiber, virtually has no unhealthy fat and can even be grown very easily.

Campbell’s soup cans to drop hormone-mimicking chemical. The iconic US soup maker will stop usingBisphenol-A by 2017, after the chemical was found in all 15 of its cans tested in a US survey. The Guardian. (See also coverage in the Daily Telegraph: Does canned food cause cancer? A leading UK cancer charity has written to major food manufacturers asking them to reveal details of their use of the controversial chemical BPA in food cans.)

Benign by design: how chemists aim to end pharmaceutical pollution of the environment. From antibiotics to hormones and pain killers – residue from drugs is found in wastewater, rivers, fish, and even in polar bear fat. But chemists say they may know how to end this environmental pollution. Deutsche Welle.

‘Breakthrough’ hailed in EDCs logjam. Scientific experts, from both sides of the endocrine debate, have agreed a “consensus statement” on identifying endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which will be passed to the European Commission to support its work compiling regulatory criteria. Chemical Watch.

Firefighters seek new law to ban flame retardants. Amid growing concern that flame retardants are responsible for elevated cancer rates in firefighters, Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing legislation that would go further than any other state’s in banning the use of chemicals meant to slow the spread of fires. Boston Globe.

Posted by: AGelbert

April 14, 2016 at 6:07 pmThis month, we recommend reading “The Sugar Conspiracy”, a Guardian Long Read by science writer and journalist Ian Leslie. The article is interesting because the challenges of developing evidence-based chemical regulations are mirrored in this account of the lessons we should be learning from a 60+ year-old argument about the place of sugar and fat in dietary guidance for public health.

Sugar, chemicals, and the role of science in policy-making

Chemicals and public health policy both sit at the interface of science and decision-making, trying to make sense of accumulating scientific evidence about health risks posed by chemicals, how to best make use of that ever-shifting research landscape to agree on desired outcomes, and shape the policies that will stand the best chance of achieving them.

The first lesson about the relationship between science and policy, which “The Sugar Conspiracy” gets right, is that scientific research as well as policy-making is embedded in human social practices: there is no magic cordon which automatically ensures a separation of scientist from society, or of scientific behaviours from regular ones.

In many circumstances, these social determinants may be at least as important for explaining why scientists have a particular set of beliefs as what a putative body of evidence might be saying. These social determinants operate at the personal level and include deference to the charismatic, herding towards majority opinion, punishment for deviance, and intense discomfort with admitting to error.

They also operate at the societal level, with the article touching on how the spread and eventual mainstreaming of an idea can be sometimes be explained without apparent recourse to an evidence base at all: academics accumulate power and appoint like-minded thinkers to influential positions; this increases their funding and ability to determine the research agenda, the methods used, and the admissible evidence.

As the elite spreads and homogenises, any canvassing of expert opinion reaches only a demographically uniform group, and any dissenting opinions are either missed altogether or dismissed as outliers. So by shaping the evidence and the surrounding opinion, ideas can spread through the research community without needing to be right.

The second lesson from the piece is its first misstep: the article misunderstands the role the scientific method can play in providing constraints on the social steers under which scientists operate. Of the above psychological and social pressures, the article states: “Of course, such tendencies are precisely what the scientific method was invented to correct for, and over the long run, it does a good job of it.”

In fact, it is a mistake to hold that the scientific method somehow automatically keeps in check the worst social excesses of human researchers; really, the scientific method cannot do anything automatically because it has to be deliberately applied by researchers in order to have any effect.

Most of the time, this deliberate application is made in the context of the single experiment, whereby the controlled set-up required by the scientific method makes it possible for the researcher to be more confident that the effect they are seeing is a consequence of the changes they are introducing, rather than a consequence of something else happening in the experiment of which they are unaware.

But in “The Sugar Conspiracy”, the author is interested in how scientific research is aggregated: here, the research activity moves from limiting the effect of psychosocial pressures on producing new evidence at the lab bench, to limiting the effect of these pressures on the process of gathering and appraising existing evidence.

Why, in making this transition, should we assume the scientific method is still being applied? Even if scientists are good at conducting controlled experiments in the lab, there is no reason to assume they are equally effective at controlling the variables which affect the process of synthesising all the evidence which those lab experiments are producing.

The third lesson is that we can question another assumption implied by the article: in this case, it is how the Sugar Conspiracy seems to buy into the idea that science produces a canon of fact, to which some people (like John Yudkin) are aligned all along and some (like Ancel Keys) are not.

Quote

In fact, science produces a body of evidence which is sufficiently confusing, messy and open to interpretation that at any given time it might not be possible to tell who is right.

In these instances (which may be the vast majority of the time) there is just opinion, some of it better founded on the available evidence, some of it formed by social determinants, and some of it ultimately turning out to represent the best guess as to the facts of the matter regardless of how it was come to.

If it really were a matter of science determining the facts and researchers agreeing with those facts or not, it is unclear how scientific debate could ever get started: if scientists either know the facts or they do not, then anyone arguing against the facts is either doing so out of ignorance or bad faith. It doesn’t allow for the possibility of uncertainty stemming from the difficulty of interpreting a limited and/or conflicting evidence base. This is perhaps why the article focuses on Keys’ rather uncivilised behaviour to explain how he won the argument with Yudkin; however, it is not clear if the debate would have been resolved differently even if Keys had been more of the quiet man which Yudkin was.

In a situation in which nobody knows because the evidence is weak, a decision still has to be made and it is down to luck if it is the right one. (It is also worth noting how Yudkin never really disappeared from view quite as much as the article would have the reader believe, such as this Guardian piece from 1999.)

This is one of the reasons why developing policy from an evidence base is so difficult: except in very restricted decision-making contexts, the evidence base is always going to be too underpowered to be capable of determining the right decision among the multitude of policy choices and their attendant consequences.

This is for two reasons: that the number of possible choices vastly outstrips our capacity to gather sufficient empirical data to determine which choice is best; and because many of the choices are not determinable by research anyway, deriving as they do from our value systems (i.e. what we want in the world).

Where evidence is lacking, opinion fills the space. Where outcomes can be legitimately informed or determined by evidence, the trick will be in determining which opinions are sufficiently based in what is currently known, where there is opinion instead of evidence, and what to do in terms of research to meet the information requirements of the policy-makers. (Where outcomes cannot be legitimately determined by evidence, the trick is ensuring the political process is capable of producing fair and equitable outcomes.)

The final lesson concerns what to do in order to ensure that we are making the best use of evidence in policy-making. At this point, the Sugar Conspiracy rather peters out, being ambivalent about information democracies or information oligarchies, as if somehow the prize of science is clarity in purpose rather than (as the article itself seems to imply throughout) using the evidence to give oneself the best possible chance of making the right decision.

Quote

There is in fact a route to a better way of doing things which means we can be much more optimistic about the prospects for the scientific method in hastening resolution of scientific disputes, whether they are about appropriate sugar intake in dietary guidelines or the risks to health posed by chemicals and other pollutants.

The solution involves revisiting how the scientific method can be applied to the aggregation of evidence.

The premise of the story, that scientists are bad at developing evidence-based policies, only comes as a surprise because people (scientists included) seem just to assume that because scientists are scientific when they are producing evidence, then they must be just as scientific when they are accumulating evidence.

As the article shows, they are not. But the situation is by no means insoluble: the reason scientists are not very good at accumulating evidence is that it is only relatively recently that the scientific method has been deliberately applied not only to the process of generating evidence, but also to aggregating it.

These lessons have been most painfully learned in medicine, historically an eminence-led profession where, by the 1990s, experts were being found to be making one error after another in their understanding of what they thought the evidence said. This cost lives in administration of ineffective interventions and resulted in clinical trials being conducted for questions to which the answers should already have been known.

Quote

The lesson was that as much methodological care needs to be taken in aggregating research as needs to be taken in producing it.

For this purpose, systematic review methods were invented. In essence, they are simple: it is about taking the principle of control, of transparency and repeatability of methods and of minimising bias, so familiar in lab work, and applying it to how evidence is synthesised.

This has been very successful in medicine, making groups of experts consistently much better at using effective healthcare treatments and rejecting ineffective ones. In the context of systematic review, as the large volume of positive responses to the Teicholz article in the BMJ suggests, the culture shift towards challenging eminence with evidence, facilitated by an accessible evidence-base, could go a long way towards preventing the likes of Ancel Keys apparently getting their way by throwing their weight around rather than demonstrating the evidence for their position.

So while we can’t make scientists asocial, we can start imposing controls on the aggregation of evidence, to minimise (or at least help us identify) the effect which uncontrolled social influences have on what we think the best evidence is saying.

This won’t solve all the problems with ensuring policy makes best use of the best evidence, but it helps with at least one of them.

Further reading

Testing Treatments. Evans et al. (2011). Short, free and very accessible book about how randomised controlled trials, systematic review methods, patient involvement in research decisions and other hallmarks of the modern approach healthcare research have transformed medicine.

“How science makes environmental controversies worse”. Dan Sarewitz (2004). Offers a compelling explanation of why the processes of conducting research and developing policy should not be conflated.

The Honest Broker. Roger Pielke Jr (2007). Explains how science can become politicised, politics can become scientised, and how science advice, if sought in the right way, can navigate between these two unappealing alternatives.

Agelbert NOTE: Unsaid in the article, unless you read between the lines (i.e. define what "politicized" means ), is the deliberate cherry picking OFTEN involved in control group selection. This is done, while falsely claiming the control group is a "random" selection, so that the experimental results will produce the "appropriate" benign results if they want to "prove" a chemical is not toxic, carcinogenic or otherwise damaging to humanity and the biosphere. The epidemiological "studies" on cancer clusters near nuclear power plants are an excellent example of disingenuous cherry picking of "control group" subjects.

The article states, "Where outcomes cannot be legitimately determined by evidence, the trick is ensuring the political process is capable of producing fair and equitable outcomes."

Unfortunately, in our world of rampant corporate corruption of scientific research, the TRICK is ACTUALLY to ENSURE the DESIRED outcome for corporate profit. To this end, the methodology is gamed and the scientific elite are bought and paid for to claim those that question the research are either "ignorant" or "outliers" to be ignored.

The NIST studies on 911 and WTC 7 are ALSO an excellent example of how this gamed science for "officially desired outcomes" works. And the arguments made by people like MKing or Palloy against those that question the NIST study are, as stated above, that those that question the researchare either "ignorant" or "unscientific outliers" to be ignored.

The "scientific method" of those who wish to guarantee DESIRED corporate bottom line outcomes:

Posted by: AGelbert

A healthy Mediterranean-style diet costs less than a junky American diet

Katherine Martinko (@feistyredhair)Living / Green FoodMarch 2, 2016

An interesting research project has found that swapping out meat for olive oil and more canned legumes and frozen vegetables costs less than the most economical version of the USDA's dietary guidelines.

There is a misconception that eating a healthy Mediterranean-style diet is too expensive for low-income families, but new research dispels that notion. A joint project between the Miriam Hospital and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank has demonstrated that a plant-based diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil is cheaper than the most economical recommendations made by the United States Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate program – a whole $750 cheaper per year!

Dr. Mary Flynn, who works as a dietician at the Miriam Hospital and was a lead author on the study, said that most people think healthy diets are expensive due to the increased amounts of fresh vegetables and fruit, but she suspected it was really the meat that made it pricey. Flynn set out to show that we don’t actually need that much meat, and that replacing with olive oil can not only reduce the cost but also improve health.

"Extra-virgin olive oil is thought to be expensive, but we suspected it was meat that made a diet expensive, and extra-virgin olive oil is cheaper than even small amounts of meat. We expected the two diets to be similar in fruit and vegetable content, but our plant-based diet was substantially cheaper, and featured a lot more fruits and vegetables and whole grains."

Flynn developed recipes that were used by Food Bank clients on an average of 2.8 times per week. The recipes provide price breakdowns per batch and per serving. Clients responded favorably, saying the recipes were easier to prepare than their usual ones and that they lost weight while experiencing improved food security.

The big difference between Flynn’s approach and the one espoused by MyPlate is that Flynn uses greater quantities of frozen and canned products, such as chickpeas, black beans, and vegetables. They are cheaper than their fresh counterparts while still retaining the same nutritional benefits. This accounted for much of the price difference: $53.11 per week for the USDA recommended diet vs. $38.75 for Flynn’s version of a Mediterranean diet. Meat cost $11.20 (or 21 percent) of the USDA diet.

Instead of meat, the plant-based diet includes 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil per day. Olive oil is often perceived as luxurious but works out to only $3.61 (or 9 percent) of the weekly food cost. When a household budget is limited, olive oil is a good way to increase one’s intake of healthy fats.

Other studies have shown that low-income families fill their grocery carts first with meat, eggs, cereal, and baked goods, none of which featured prominently in this version of a Mediterranean diet. EurekAlert says that Flynn’s work in educating consumers “to include some weekly meals that do not contain meat, poultry or seafood but do include extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, and a starch will decrease food costs and improve food access and body weight.”

It is an interesting study with hopeful results for the many people who think it is impossible to eat healthily on a shoestring. That’s not the case, as this research team has happily shown, as long as those dollars are spent wisely.

Posted by: AGelbert

One of man’s clever inventions is the fuel gauge used in cars. In modern ones, there is often even a warning light that comes on when it’s ‘time to refuel’. Another is the valve on fuel-filling nozzles that shuts off to prevent overfilling and wastage/spilling. But our human body has analogous devices, too.Humans need to refuel, too

Once, while lunching with an older acquaintance, I complimented him on his slim physique at a time when many in society were tending towards obesity. His answer astonished me. He said, “I can’t take any credit for that because it seems I don’t have the urge to eat that other folks have.” He could not recall ever having known what it was like to feel ‘hungry’. Eating gave him no pleasure nor was there any urge to do so. “The only reason I know I have to eat is because experience has shown that if I don’t, after a day or so I notice I’m tired and listless. So I know I have to eat to get my energy back.”

time-to-refuel

It seems his internal ‘fuel gauge’ and ‘low-fuel warning light’ were broken.

‘Enough fuel, already!’

Our body also has an appetite ‘switch-off’ mechanism similar in effect to the automatic cut-off of a fuel nozzle, so as not to ‘over-fill’. In some obese people the ‘Enough fuel, already!’ click-off mechanism is known to be faulty. However, it can be hard to identify precisely where the problem lies, as a range of hormones is known to be involved in the body’s food-feedback systems, and the processes are far from fully understood. However, some insights are emerging.The leptin hormone

In the 1990s, scientists discovered the hormone leptin, produced by the ob gene.1 Leptin is now known to curb appetite.2 High levels activate certain of the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, in a way that suppresses the desire to eat, instead generating a feeling of ‘fullness’. Low levels, on the other hand, stimulate hunger.

Researchers have observed that giving the leptin hormone to obese people born without the ob gene reduced their hunger pangs. They ate less, and so were able to lose weight.

How exactly leptin achieves this, and thus helps the body’s delicate balance between energy intake (eating) and energy usage (exercise and metabolism), isn’t completely known yet. Many scientists suspect that leptin might be as crucial as the hormone insulin in this function. When leptin levels are low, the sight and smell of tasty food can stimulate an immediate desire to eat. But sight and smell don’t have anything like the same impact when leptin levels are high.

Researchers have observed that giving the leptin hormone to obese people born without the ob gene (and who thus lacked their own naturally-produced leptin) reduced their hunger pangs. They ate less, and so were able to lose weight.

Unfortunately for those who might therefore have hoped that leptin could be used to treat all obesity, “the story turned out to be much more complicated”.2 It’s only a minority of obese people who lack the ob gene. Most obese people have the ob gene, but it produces so much leptin that they’ve become resistant to its effects. Researchers are endeavouring to understand the mechanism of that resistance.3

The ghrelin hormone

Another hormone now known to have a key role in appetite is ghrelin, which stimulates appetite. As the stomach empties itself of the previous meal, bloodstream levels of the ghrelin hormone rise rapidly, signalling to the body that “it’s time to eat!” Then as soon as the stomach becomes full, ghrelin levels fall again.

In people who lose weight through dieting, ghrelin levels become “chronically high”—which might help explain why many people struggle to adhere to such weight loss programs.

In people who lose weight through dieting, ghrelin levels become “chronically high”—which might help explain why many people struggle to adhere to such weight loss programs.2

The melanocortin–4 receptors

Researchers are also investigating the receptors, or ‘docking sites’, on neurons for a hormone called melanocortin–4.

When these receptors are working properly, they help to suppress appetite. But defective receptors lead to “morbid obesity”.2

Crediting design

These hard-won insights into the intricacies of the body’s appetite-control systems point to far greater complexity than that of the car fuel gauge and nozzle overfill-prevention mechanisms. Surely nobody would say that fuel gauges and automatic pump shut-off gadgetry were not designed. The human engineers certainly deserve the credit for their designs, so how much more honour is due to the Designer of the human body’s intricate stomach-sight-smell intertwined feedback systems? And the fact that they now don’t always work is the result of Adam’s fall into sin, which brought about God’s just curse on creation (see also box above).4

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DNA Decay

When someone is born lacking hunger signals, or with the defective food-feedback mechanisms in certain obese people today, these are examples of genomic decay (mutations). This is all part of the “bondage to decay” (Romans 8:19–22) to which the originally “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31) was subjected—because of the first man’s sin (Genesis 2:16–17, 3; Romans 5:12,17; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22). No wonder then that genomic decay (due to mutations) is increasingly in evidence.5 E.g. people lacking the ob gene, or unresponsive to the appetite-suppressing leptin it produces, or with defective melanocortin–4 receptors.6

References and notes1.Zhang, Y., and 6 others, Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue, Nature 372:425–432, 1994. Return to text.2.Society for Neuroscience, Brain briefings—Appetite and food intake, sfn.org, November 2007. Return to text.3.Like Type 2 diabetes and other modern ‘scourges’, it may be related to the increasing shift to high energy density and high-glycemic-index refined grains and sugars and away from fruit and vegetables, especially in developed countries. Return to text.4.Smith, H., Cosmic and universal death from. Adam’s Fall: an exegesis of Romans 8:19–23, J. Creation 21(1):75–85, 2007; creation.com/ romans8. Return to text.5.Catchpoole, D., Time—no friend of evolution, Creation 34(3):30–31, 2012; creation.com/time-genetic. Return to text.6.Interestingly, estrogen has been found to use the same pathways as leptin uses to suppress appetite—“a possible reason why women tend to gain weight after menopause.” (see main text, ref. 2) Return to text.

Posted by: AGelbert

Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Sunday at a concert by Neil Young in Essex Junction that Young (right) had donated $100,000 to a legal defense fund for Vermont's GMO labeling law. Photo courtesy of the Governor's Office. Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Sunday at a concert by Neil Young in Essex Junction that Young (right) had donated $100,000 to a legal defense fund for Vermont’s GMO labeling law. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.

Canadian rocker Neil Young joined Gov. Peter Shumlin in Essex Junction on Sunday to voice his support for Vermont’s GMO labeling law, which requires food produced using genetic engineering to say so on the packaging.

Shumlin praised Young’s announcement that he would make a $100,000 donation to the Vermont Food Fight Fund, established to defend Vermont’s law from opponents who wish to see it overturned in court.

“Support for the food fight fund is support for the consumer’s right to know. Huge corporations fighting to keep consumers in the dark are suing the state in a series of vigorous and costly lawsuits. The food fight fund will defend against the lawsuits and is the classic David and Goliath story of a small state versus the big food industry,” Shumlin said in a news release.

Act 120 has been challenged in court by the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association and other food industry trade groups, who say the bill is unconstitutional and a violation of their freedom of speech.

“The First Amendment dictates that when speech is involved, Vermont policymakers cannot merely act as a pass-through for the fads and controversies of the day. It must point to a truly ‘governmental’ interest, not just a political one,” the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association says on their website.

The organization also argues that GMO labeling laws are neither comprehensive enough to achieve their goal of greater transparency in the food industry, nor backed by scientific research.

In the news release, Shumlin characterized the bill as a populist attempt to protect consumers’ right to know what they’re eating.

“If we win in Vermont it will pave the way for labeling laws across the country. If we lose, so, too, does the consumer right to know and the power of people over profits,” he said.

The state will draw upon the Vermont Food Fight Fund to help pay for the upcoming legal battle against the GMA. Young’s $100,000 contribution brings the contents of the fund up to $550,000, the release said.

Young is no stranger to either Vermont politics or controversy over GMO issues. He recently came out in support of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid after Republican candidate Donald Trump used Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” as his campaign song without Young’s permission. Shumlin supports Sanders’ Democratic primary opponent Hillary Clinton.

“I am proud to stand in solidarity with the people of Vermont and support efforts to uphold the people’s will in the legal battle against corporate bullying. GMO labeling will stand,” Young said in the release.

Young, a former member of the band Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, was in Vermont on Sunday to perform at the Champlain Valley Exposition.